Anyone HAVE to wear a cap?
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I have been visiting a facility around here recently where the nurses MUST wear a cap. It is strange. I was told another facility around here also mandates them. I was really taken aback! The... Read More

Dec 14, '02

Here is a question for Carrie or anyone else. Suppose you had to have a cap and you could no longer get one from your nursing school. Could you just get a standard nurses cap and pop it on your head? At one time this would have been considered sacrilegious and any person wearing a cap from a school they did not attend would have been burned at the stake. However, I know people who attended diploma schools that closed over 40 years ago and they are still practicing. Me thinks getting a new cap would be difficult if not impossible in some cases.

Dec 14, '02

Greetings to all.
I just found this thread so let me add my two cents. I still wear my cap. I wore it as an LPN and I wear it as an Rn. I am the only one in my hospital that does so, whites and all. I purchase a new cap Q 6 months from Nightingale Uniforn Co. in Georgiana, Al. Washing ia cap is just ugly.
As far is it being infective I think not. I never wear it when I have isolation pts. and I suspect we all have MRSA anyway as by the time we know the pts. have it and they are on isolation we have cared for them for a few days. I swear that if we had to all have a nasal swab we would all have MRSA.
Anyway I am not trying to make a statement I simply enjoy what I wear and my pts. love it. At one point our new CEO wanted to make whites/cap madatory and I said to him that I thought it was a terrible idea.
I believe that all persons should dress as they wish to. On the holidays and weekends I dress in scrubs and enjoy that too. My pts. that know me miss my Cap at that time and they tell me so.
I truly do not go one day in whites and a cap that I do not get a positive comment from a pt. or family member.
I say wear what you want nurse your brains out and enjoy your life.

Dec 14, '02

<I was wondering if anyone knew were one could even get a cap these days. I am shocked that some of you must wear them. Where the heck are they purchased?>

I wore a cap for my graduation in 1982 & never had to wear it again. In 1995 when we had the first big nurses march in Washington DC to protest all the restructuring & downsizing going on then, pt safety & replacement of RNs with UAPs, tens of thousands of nurses showed up at the Capitol Building in their caps & white uniforms -- some even had their old blue capes -- to make the visual statement. (photo & video at www.greatnurses.com)

I couldnt find the fancy black-striped one from my school so I had called the school to get a new one before the event -- out of luck --- they dont use caps anymore - not even for graduation ceremonies. I ended up buying a plain white one from the uniform store in the mall for $9. Very easy to fold. They gave me a package of white bobby pins to go with it - no charge.

In 1996, when our new CEO was freezing vacant RN positions & eliminating practically the enitire nursing dept, we had a huge public labor battle with him at my hospital. One strategy the RNs used was to wear caps - bringing the pts' & families' immediate attention to how few RNs there were on the floors. After the second week, the hospital made a new dress code policy that said nurses caps are strictly forbidden & anyone wearing one would be formally disciplined for violating the dress code. Didnt have to wear the caps anymore after that cause they also got the point, unfroze 50 vacant RN positions & started hiring.
(That CEO didnt last long there either).

Last edit by -jt on Dec 14, '02

Dec 14, '02

-jt,
That was extremely interesting! I love it.

Dec 14, '02

I wore one everyday, except for Holloween for 3 years in a ltc facility. This was 1997-2000. All floor nurses were required too. But, of course, noc nurses Never did, weekends depended on the supervisor. If you were a day shift nurse, watch out! But then the cnas had to wear hairnets in the dining room, yes, the only ltc center i worked at that required this. The 'rationale' for this was to distinguish us from the cnas. We all wore white. Jeez, why not give someone another color. I imagine that they still do as the administration is the same as then. But, hey, they paid you enough at the time to wear them. They paid more than the hospital then. Heck, if I had stayed there I would be making more money than I do now.....a $1.50 more a hour than the hospital was worth it at the time. I was always glad to be recognized as the nurse....BUT, would never do it again.

Dec 15, '02

I've been an RN for 20 years and have never had to wear a cap.

Dec 15, '02

there is no way on gods green earth or any other planet for that matter that I would work in a cap
it is crazily stupidly impractical, and thats my main reason
nevermind the fact that I'm sure mine would fall off all the damn time and the fact that I'm not particularly interested in looking like a throwback from the 50's (nothing wrong with that, thats how it was then and all , I'm just saying)
I have the same viewpoint adrie does on the cap thing (child of the 90's thing and all!)
I just cant see how people can justify the use of the cap anymore....
I understand the nostalgia value and the fact that it leads to recognition of the nurse in the workplace ,but for practical reasons , forget it!

Dec 15, '02

Originally posted by lisamcrn ! But then the cnas had to wear hairnets in the dining room, yes, the only ltc center i worked at that required this. The 'rationale' for this was to distinguish us from the cnas. We all wore white.

I guess there is something intrinsically flighty about CNA hair it tends to fall out in patients food.
God bless the RN's cap kept her hair in and protected her from becomming bald.
I knew there was a reason I am no longer a CNA. My hair kept falling out in people's food at the dinning room. Gosh why did I only find this out now?

Dec 15, '02

Oh my what a trip down memory lane

Bean, thankyou, what a great site.

This one is very similar to the one I wore..but we had gold stipes, one for each year

Dec 15, '02

Originally posted by -jt
[B.In 1996, when our new CEO was freezing vacant RN positions & eliminating practically the enitire nursing dept, we had a huge public labor battle with him at my hospital. One strategy the RNs used was to wear caps - bringing the pts' & families' immediate attention to how few RNs there were on the floors. After the second week, the hospital made a new dress code policy that said nurses caps are strictly forbidden & anyone wearing one would be formally disciplined for violating the dress code. Didnt have to wear the caps anymore after that cause they also got the point, unfroze 50 vacant RN positions & started hiring.
(That CEO didnt last long there either). [/B]

Forbidding it in the dress code! What an act of cowardness on the part of management. I'd fight that on principle alone. It's insulting. this would have been one for the media too.

Congrats for your creative and effective solution.

Dec 15, '02

Whoa...I went to that website, and the picture of the student nurse capping ceremony looked EXACTLY like mine...I remember sitting up on stage and seeing all of the nursing instructors come walking in, two by two, in spotless whites and their graduate caps(amazing how they all differed!). I graduated in 1985.

We wore caps all the time after we were capped, with varying stripes depending on what year you were...when you graduated you got a totally different style of cap...no stripe. Only wore it once or twice afterward, in a volunteer setting, but haven't worn it since. It still sits on my bookcase, and has about 2" of dust on it.

LOL about the nurses wearing caps to point out staffing prob.; it's not really funny, but it was a perfect visual.

I hate to say that I DO like to see the old pix of nurses in caps, just to reminisce, but wouldn't want to wear one now. Pts should just be glad to get a nurse, instead of getting into picayune issues like caps/no caps. Oh well...

We used to wear one in the late 80s and early 90s. Kept getting caught in the TV that swung on the arm connected to the wall. Finally our manager said we did not have to. I used to pull it out once a year for Halloween! LOL.